Performing National Identity in Postcolonial Indonesia
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PERFORMING NATIONAL IDENTITY IN POSTCOLONIAL INDONESIA SARAH MOSER B.A. (University of Victoria) MLA (University of Toronto) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2008 ii Acknowledgements It has been a unique experience and great privilege to live and study for an extended period in Singapore. It is has been an unforgettable learning experience that I will always cherish. I am grateful for the generous financial support that I have received from the National University of Singapore which has made my stay in Singapore and my research in Indonesia possible. During my PhD, I have established an international network of wonderful people to whom I owe many thanks. I extend my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Lily Kong, for her patience, kindness, sense of humour, encouragement and her faith in me. She has been a wonderful mentor and I feel extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to have worked with her. My friends in the Geography Department at NUS have kept my spirits up and have offered me advice, friendship, and the occasional kick in the pants, in particular: Rita, Tricia, Kaoko, Vani, Kim Leng, Matthias, Winston, Haja Salina, Jingnan, Diganta, Kanchan, B. Putra, Natalie, Kamal, Linda, Noor, Monica, Tracey, Anant, Christine and also honorary geographers, Taberez and Smita. I appreciate the input from Jan Mrázek, Victor Savage, Natalie Oswin, Budi Sulistiyanto, Johannes Widodo, Brenda Yeoh, and Shirlena Huang, who, at various points during the thesis, offered me sound advice and thoughtful comments that have helped me through this process. I am particularly indebted to my friends in various parts of Indonesia who have been helpful, hospitable and generous with their time. I thoroughly enjoyed my time on Pulau Penyengat, where residents very kindly opened their doors to me, patiently humoured me, and allowed me to be a part of their lives. Finally, my partner Michael Hendricks has been my most constant source of stimulating discussion, support, encouragement, and editing assistance. iii Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................. II TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................... III SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................ VI LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................................... VII LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................................ VII CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION: PERFORMING THE NATION ................................................................. 1 1.1 OUTLINING THE RESEARCH ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 CONTEXT OF STUDY .............................................................................................................................. 4 1.3 FIELD SITE ......................................................................................................................................... 11 1.4 THESIS STRUCTURE .............................................................................................................................. 18 CHAPTER 2 – POWER, PERFORMANCE, AND IDENTITY IN INDONESIA .............................................. 24 2.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 24 2.2 IDEOLOGY AND POWER RELATIONS IN LANDSCAPE ..................................................................................... 25 2.3 PERFORMANCE AND PERFORMATIVITY .................................................................................................... 30 2.3.1 Origins and appeal ................................................................................................................. 31 2.3.2 Performance and performativity in geography ...................................................................... 38 2.3.4 Challenges and limitations of performance and performativity ............................................. 46 2.3.5 Reformulating performance: layering and intentionality ....................................................... 48 2.4 INDONESIAN NATIONALISM .................................................................................................................. 51 2.5 APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING POWER IN INDONESIAN SOCIETY ............................................................. 57 2.6 SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................................... 62 CHAPTER 3 – METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................... 65 3.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 65 3.2 FIELDWORK CONTEXT .......................................................................................................................... 65 3.2.1 Conducting research in Indonesia ........................................................................................... 66 3.2.2 Pulau Penyengat: Research in a small Malay village.............................................................. 69 3.3 PRECEDENTS: METHODOLOGY FOR PERFORMANCE AND PERFORMATIVITY ...................................................... 72 3.4 METHODS ......................................................................................................................................... 75 3.4.1 Primary and secondary sources .............................................................................................. 76 3.4.2 Participant observation .......................................................................................................... 78 3.4.3 Selecting interviewees ............................................................................................................ 82 3.4.4 Interviews ............................................................................................................................... 83 3.4.5 Focus groups ........................................................................................................................... 86 3.5 ETHICS.............................................................................................................................................. 93 3.6 SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................................... 97 CHAPTER 4 – COLONIAL INFLUENCES ON INDONESIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY .................................... 98 4.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 98 4.2 COLONIAL OCCUPATIONS ...................................................................................................................... 98 4.2.1 The Dutch Period .................................................................................................................... 98 4.2.2 The Japanese Period ............................................................................................................. 100 4.2.3 The colonial Javanese? ......................................................................................................... 106 4.3 GEOGRAPHICAL BOUNDARIES .............................................................................................................. 106 4.4 NATIONAL PHILOSOPHY ...................................................................................................................... 109 4.5 LANGUAGE ...................................................................................................................................... 112 4.6 RACE AND CULTURE........................................................................................................................... 113 4.7 SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................................... 116 CHAPTER 5 – THE NATION AT WORK ............................................................................................. 117 5.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 117 5.2 WORK AND IDENTITY ......................................................................................................................... 119 iv 5.3 STATE WORKERS ............................................................................................................................... 125 5.3.1 Pre‐Independence work ........................................................................................................ 126 5.3.2 Post‐Independence work ...................................................................................................... 127 5.3.3 Uniforms ..............................................................................................................................